


Orient

by Caritas_Lavellan



Series: Earth Mind [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 08:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5532356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caritas_Lavellan/pseuds/Caritas_Lavellan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few months after Corypheus is defeated. In the desert, Solas sees a star. </p><p>Because love’s not just for those who think that they deserve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orient

When, eventually, he reaches it, their camp in the Hissing Wastes is all but deserted. The Inquisition soldiers have left for Satinalia: home to families if they have them, or to Griffon Wing Keep if not.

It was here she’d held his gaze across the flames, holding a dwarven dragon statuette.

Here that he drew her, holding an amrita flower in the moonlight.

Here that he let himself acknowledge his willingness to act upon his love for her, that however unworthy he thought himself, it was _her_ happiness that mattered.

And however much this unwanted, painful, _necessary_ separation hurt them both, a part of him could not regret that they had come together. Selfish, irresponsible, unkind… but more real than anything he’d ever known, in a lifespan hundreds of times the length of hers.

Every night the same unspoken prayer: _Vhenan,_ forgive me.

Whispered into the magic of the broken orb, a frozen heartbeat. _I can’t… I can’t… I’m sorry._

****

He lies down beside the fire that he’d built himself and pushes into the Fade. The skies undergo their too-familiar deformation, another sharp reminder of the consequences of the Veil.

_Does it bother you, Cole, how different it looks than the sky in the Fade?_

_At first, I didn’t remember. Now I just want to forget._

Agony to remember her as well, but far worse for everyone who encounters Fen’Harel should Solas ever dare forget. He focuses on the flames and suddenly she is there.

Laughing with The Iron Bull, gently teaching Cole, playing with the dragon statuette, thinking about an ancient Paragon, and smiling at the other him, just a few short months ago.

He wants to reach out now and touch her, stroke her gleaming hair, but he can’t. He can’t.

Without the Veil, it might be possible. Unwise, unsound, unequal… but achievable.

No. Fen’Harel will not take from that Solas those few moments.

Moments are all they ever had.

****

He wakes up and it’s the Eye that greets him first. His eyes track to the point of _Visus_ that appeared only after Andraste’s death, or so believers say: the point of a sword. And if he tracks the sword line further east there’s a new star just emerging over the horizon.

She’s out there somewhere.

Maybe, just perhaps… she can see this new star too.

The mage observes the star that’s rising in the east, and begins to walk back home.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This vignette is linked to [Earth Mind](http://archiveofourown.org/series/306273). Merry Christmas everyone.


End file.
